CURN is a research development project funded by the Division of Nursing, Department of Health, Education and Welfare. It has the major objectives of improving the practice of nursing through two types of activity: 1) the utilization of exisiting research findings in the daily practice of nurses; and 2) the design and conduct of research which is directly relevant and readily transferable to nursing practice activities. CURN has two major program thrusts: 1) research utilization activities and 2) collaborative research. The research utilization program, which began in June 1976, is designed to determine how nursing service departments in 40 selected hospitals in southern Michigan currently go about utilizing nursing research findings as a part of routine nursing practice. The collaborative research program, started in early 1978, is designed to encourage hospital-employed nursing clinicians and university-employed nursing researchers to work together to develop clinical nursing research proposals.